The goals of this research project are to understand the reason that certain patients with asthma develop a resistance to treatment with corticosteroids, the most common drug used to fight lung inflammation in asthma. Our studies indicate that the immune sytem is abnormally activated in the lungs of patients with steroid resistant (SR) asthma. Our studies during the past year indicate that infection may be a cause of poor response to steroid therapy. The mechanism by which infection causes steroid resistance appears to be by altering the steroid receptor in immune cells to a form which is less responsive to steroid therapy. Understanding the trigger and mechanism for this conversion to a less responsive steroid receptor may lead to better therapies for asthma in the future.